THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 1899.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume II, Issue 5, 8 June 1899, Page 2

THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 1899.

In the year ISJS there was passe \ a bill^entitled the Inebriates Bill. It was introduced by Sir W. M Ridley, andaecepted by the-Parlia-ment of Great Britain. T*his Aci has made one sr.ep in . the right direction : It has attempted the solution of tihe question how to deal with the chronic drunkard. This class of individual is the reproach of the trade. He is the only too apparent object for tha anathemas of the prohibition party, and is, at the same time, the curse of -the respectable clas >' of hotel keepers. If the habit u,\l drunkard can be successfully dealt with, the necessity for prohibiting the whole community would disappear, but so loisg as he remains* ia anything like largo numbers so lpng»\vid the. cry iasi that total and complete prohibition is and only remedy

left. We have not the Act before us but from our last English files wo have extracted its main objects. One of the failures of the law 1 Up to the present has been its non-interference With drunkards who come before courts for crime for which intoxication is partially responsible — by this Act this is renac-died. It provides that any habitual drunkard, admitted by himself or found to b3 so by a jury, if he be convicted of an oftence committed under the inrluence of drink, or if drink be ;i contributory cause, may be ordered to be detained in any state or certified reformatory for j t period not. exceeding three /ears, in addition to, or in substitution for, the punishment dealt oat to him for the indiGfcable offence of which he is proved guilty. I'd bo convicted four times in any Avelve months for the minor Irunkcn offences also renders the •ulprit liable to three yeara deention in an inebriate reformatory. The Secretary of State -nay establish such reformatories : >ut of funds voted by Parliament. 1 3orongh and County Councils 1 nay assist, or actually establish md maintain snch refuges, the -•ost of miintdining a person beiisg recoverable at law if his estate .3 more than sufficient to maintain his family. - The Act came aito force on last New Year's Jay and applies to England, Scotland and Ireland.. There are rherefore two changes in the law — namely t*he detention for treatnent of those committing serious offences, and the detention of •Aiosg comparatively harmless -Irunliards who point to the utter inefficiency of our laws by 'their ip'pearance and reappearance before Courts, even nnto the one hundred and fiftieth time. Just us if a few hours in gaol would reform the hopeless , chronic drunkard, who is as helpless as a tjmpcsfc-tossed ship without her . adder I Mr Sherd, of Auckland, , ias pressed on the notice of our louse his Bill for the treatment j£ chronic drundards by their incarceration ia homes for proper treatment, but without avail. There are - permissive Acts, we believe, in our Statue Book, >vhich allow a man himself 'to tpply to a Court of LaSv, so hat he may be detained 'or treatment, but for various .•easontf, and for many obvious mes, ifc is seldom taken advantage of. The now English Act provides for sentences that are i compulsory. This law is the thin <;dge of the wedge, and within • easonable time we may hope for i botlerand more successful treatneat o£ this class of people than 1,1-3 hitherto baen attempted. We vi*e inclined in this colony to look >n ourselves as leading the \yo_rld n oar -legislative enactments,/.but \ve think that this Inebriates' lefc of 181)3 is considerably in

advance of any of the legislation already passed in this country" i li connection with the "evils w« speak of. It is at least the most commonsense Act we have roda, of. In England a prosecution under the Act has already taken place, for at the Blackburn Qairbpr' ter Sessions on Ap. 7, 'iW, afemata weaver was convicted of. larceny for which she received OXK MONTH, and of habitual drunkenness, for which she ivesival THKEE YBAU3 DETENTION IN A CERTIFIED INEBRIATE RHF3H-M-atoly The latter miy b3 leittened should the Horns Sesrefcary think fit. In Scotland, no application for such a Reformatory has been made, and their estiblishmsnt is to be deferred in th-a meantime. It is not unreasonable, considering ho w ineifisientiy the constant toper has be^n dealt with, for many pdople to holi the belief that before the majorfty decide for the abolition of the liquor traffic, a dacenfc ha.nin3 and rational effort should bd put forth for his improvement, if not, his complete cure, and wa would be glad to see this Act copied by our New Zealand Legislature, fhere are muiy chronic soakers ill small as well as in large towns -who are a scourge to the community, to their friends and their relations, to their wives and families, to the tradesmen whose bills they never pay, and last but not least, to those among the liqonsed victuallers who are selfrespecting, and to whom the individual msntiOiisJ. is nothing but a worthless naisinco, an I a constant manace to the safety of his license.